Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for coming before us. I will begin with a question for Dr. Smyth. She referred earlier to the leaving certificate being a very high-stakes exam. I think we all recognise that because it determines what a person does at third level and determines, to a certain extent, what his or her opportunities are going to be. Would there be any benefit in breaking the link between the leaving certificate results and access to third level education? She will be aware a person's access to third level is exclusively determined by how he or she does in the leaving certificate, unless he or she is doing something like medicine or arts and crafts. Would there be any benefit in breaking that complete connection between the two?